Colonial New England ancestor who traveled to Guatemala

manuel welchez

Hello everyone:

Joseph Welch, my 5th great grandfather, was born about 1735 either in Acton or Upton Massachusetts in colonial New England. By 1756 he was living in Guatemala, where he married my 5th great grandmother. The above information has been gleaned from a matrimonial record dated June 4th 1756 from the town of San Pedro Zacapa, Zacapa, Guatemala.

I am looking for suggestions where and how to search for information (records / documents / names of vessels) of colonial New Englanders traveling to Guatemala from about 1752 to 1756.

Thanks.

Norm Jones

Hi @manuel welchez

A good place to get some ideas on search strategies is the FamilySearch Wiki on Guatemala:

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Guatemala_Genealogy

manuel welchez

Hello Norm:

Thanks for your reply, however I've already tried the Guatemala wiki without much success. Do you know of a US genealogy website that archives travel information from colonial New England ( early to middle 1700's) to Central America? Thanks

MaureenE123

I am not connected with FamilySearch

I would try to locate American online newspapers of the period and look for shipping information.

There is a FamilySearch Wiki page Massachusetts Newspapers https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Massachusetts_Newspapers

There seem to be a number of different newspaper databases (payment required) but you would need to check that the required period is covered.

manuel welchez

Maureen. I appreciate the suggestion and I will follow up on it.

Manuel

manuel welchez